Pages

Friday, August 12, 2016

I started on Bangaio One, a forest planet with temperate climate, abundant flora and some fauna. In fact, one of the first things I saw as I turned around the survey the land was a pair of tyrannosaur-type creatures on a nearby hill. Luckily they didn't run over and attack.

There is little grass on Bangaio One, with the ground covered by short bushes and leaves. Parts of the ground are more barren, allowing you to glimpse the orange and red dust beneath. The air seems clear, although in the distance you feel there is a bit of a lack of visibility.

The relatively leafy ground made spotting some creatures tricky. The Bangaioan Jawbreaker was well-camoflaged and hid in the bushes; the Thundercatian Bangaioese Boar was more visible.

As night fell, the sky darkened to a deep green; the two dinosaurs had not moved from their positions. I crept near them to harvest some flowers.

After fitting up my ship, I went for a fly around the planet, watching the sun rise over a rocky outcrop. And then I pushed off into space, looking back to see my planet as I did so.

I have already been back a few times but I know one day soon I shall say goodbye for good ... unless they can add the functionality to revisit places you've been.

Thursday, August 04, 2016

There was a bit of mucking about in Shalour City, running back and forth to the Tower of Mastery and the gym. I was anticipating a long slog up the tower, similar to the ghost towers of other games, but after winning the gym badge and being told to go back up the tower, in fact it was a simple slope to the top. There I was given a Lucario with mega evolution. Mega evolution seems to make your pokémon change colour a bit and become stupidly overpowered.

Lucario in hand, I left the city and started to travel East, but in real life I got off the train and some time over night my 3DS ran out of battery. I can't remember when I saved. I hope I don't have to repeat the gym, although beating the fighting trainers only required one of my pokémon - Vivillon, who could one-hit-kill with a Psybeam.

Monday, August 01, 2016

I actually completed this a while ago, but it's taken me ages to get around to writing about it - and getting the screenshots off my capture box. Plus, you know, there were some after-game parts I wanted to get around to, including an achievement for catching the taxman which occurs once in a blue moon. I may write about those separately.

The main game first, then. The storyline, pulling together the missing parts of Altäir's life with the later years of Ezio, was probably the most coherent yet, although the modern-day parts, with Desmond in some sort of coma, were less successful. The story missions seemed more varied and tighter than in previous games, but the amount of extraneous guff seemed too high - the tower defence games and constant need to send assassins to the Mediterranean were not optional enough and felt entirely superfluous.

The city of Constantinople wasn't as interesting as Rome, partially due to a lack of countryside and ancient ruins. There was possibly more variety in buildings, but I found myself constantly having the refer to the map to work out where I was, whereas navigating Brotherhood's city was second nature by the time I finished the game. The poor draw distance from viewpoints didn't help.

Having said that, the game on the ground is stunning to look at, and I enjoyed the parkour more than before, largely due to the hookblade which allows you to make large jumps with little fear of damage. I noticed I played the game slightly differently as well - making more use of the hiding places and running from enemies, rather than simply engaging in the fight until they were all dead.

The one weak point in the story was the involvement of Sofia Sartor, who came across as naïve and hopeless at several points throughout the game. Her kidnapping was a cliche too far. It wasn't made clear why she was so interested in Ezio's books, and the limited involvement the two of them had didn't establish any sort of relationship. Ezio continued to ignore her and hide away throughout, which makes the idea that there would have been any sort of romance extremely unlikely.

But she helped him find random books, so that's alright.

The end credits went on for hours, over a dull background of the destroyed animus hub. Which was then rebuilt, so you could continue to play and find stuff.